[Anthology] Killer Thrillers

by Nick Thacker

  When he double-clicked the video, it opened and began playing. The video was about five minutes long, and was obviously a stolen recording from a security feed. The shot jumped from one camera angle to another, hovering at each for five seconds, cycling to the next and then starting again. A counter in the bottom-right corner of the screen showed the time and date — three weeks ago. Bryce couldn’t tell where it all took place, but it looked like half of the cameras were in some sort of laboratory, while the others were in a smaller, closed-off area.

  The laboratory shots were unremarkable at first — it was the feed taken from the smaller room that made Bryce sit up and stare.

  At 1 minute, 33 seconds into the film, a young boy was dragged into the room — stripped naked and slightly malnourished. He was pale and bony, and only about twelve or thirteen years old — and he was strapped to a wheeled metal table. There was no sound, but Bryce could see that the boy was awake, and he saw him scream when an older man — Vilocek, from the way he walked — came into the room. Two scientists were in attendance, one checking and rechecking an IV unit and heart monitor in the corner, the other acting as an aide to Vilocek.

  Vilocek reached into a pocket of his white lab coat and removed a small object. It glowed with an intensity that caused the camera feed to temporarily pixelate with bands of color. The young boy on the table stared wide-eyed, never letting the object out of his sight. Ever so slowly, Bryce saw the boy’s skin begin to glow. It soon lit up the room, and the scientists donned sunglasses to diminish the effect. Bryce watched as Vilocek waved the object up and down over the boy’s spasming body.

  After a few more seconds, the feed switched again to the empty laboratory. Bryce moved to fast-forward through the section, but then the three men came into the room. They fixed their attention on a bank of monitors that were just off-camera.

  They stood there for almost a minute. Suddenly, their expressions changed from blank nonchalance to frantic confusion. Whatever they’d seen hadn’t made them happy, and they all turned at once and ran from the lab.

  A few seconds passed before the camera switched back to the smaller room. Bryce leaned closer, trying to get a better view of the now blurry shot. He thought something might be wrong with the feed until he realized the small room was filling with smoke, which was obscuring the camera. Shit, he thought — he didn’t want to see what that meant.

  Ever so slowly, as the shot jumped from one camera to the next, the smoke cleared and Bryce held his breath in horror at the sight on the screen.

  The boy lay motionless on the table. His body still glowed, but the luminescence was much weaker, and seemed to be fading. There were dark, curving streaks of blood all over the boy’s skin, rolling off and puddling around his sides and legs on the metal table. The boy was obviously dead, which was upsetting enough, but it was his eyes — the young kid’s eyes — that made Bryce swallow hard and almost lose his breath.

  They were empty. Not in an emotionless, dead way, but physically empty. Where moments before there had been the confused and scared eyes of a young, helpless boy, there were now only deep, hollow sockets. The cadaver on the metal table reminded Bryce of an autopsy procedure in a morgue, though the holes in the skull where eyes had been seemed more fitting of a skeleton that hadn’t fully decomposed.

  It was a terrible sight. Whatever had happened to the boy was the direct result of the actions of the three scientists. Most likely, there was some sort of serum or poison in the IV drip that had been transfused into the boy’s bloodstream. And it was quite obvious that the object — either the original, pure sliver of the crystal that Vilocek’s father had stolen from Whittenfield Laboratories, or the synthetic version he said they’d been experimenting with — had caused the violent reaction in the boy, and his horrible death. Bryce had just witnessed Vilocek commit a third murder, and this one especially made his blood boil. What the hell were they trying to do here, he thought, rage building inside him. What were they trying to accomplish? How many other “experiments” like this one had gone wrong, and…

  Bryce knew the answer to his next question almost before he’d finished the thought.

  There was only one other person he knew whose skin lit up that way in the presence of the crystal. Bryce suddenly knew that Vilocorp had, in fact, gotten past their failures, however many they might be, gruesomely and collectively depicted in the video.

  Their successful experiment — their breakthrough —was Cole Reed.

  46

  The morning sunlight trickled down through sparse clouds, revealing an overly blue sphere of ocean below. Bryce could see the plane’s reflection like a mirage on the glassy surface of the water. Beyond the reflection, he could see three small mountain peaks rolling out of the sea and forming the triangular shape of Easter Island.

  It wasn’t big — only fifteen miles long, and less than eight miles across at its widest point. Bryce could see the whole island as the plane descended toward its southwestern point. There he could see the small Rano Kau volcano, with its divot of a crater just beyond. To the right of Rano Kau there was layer of fog that had settled in the morning hours and hadn’t quite dispersed. Just below the fog was their destination — the single runway of Mataveri International Airport.

  But Bryce’s attention was focused toward the most recognizable feature of Easter Island — the giant Moai statues that dotted the beaches and hilltops, facing inland toward the larger volcano at the center of the island. The stone statues, each hand-chiseled from blocks of solidified volcanic ash, were believed to be monuments to fallen deities that offered protection to the islanders.

  These people, the Rapa Nui, still lived on the island — mostly in the city of Hanga Roa near the airport, but the true origins and the written language — Rongorongo — of the Rapa Nui were completely lost to the world. No one had ever been able to decipher the surviving scripts of Rongorongo writing — not even the descendants of the Rapa Nui themselves.

  47

  8:37 am - Easter Island

  Vilocek’s team was just leaving the airport when they heard the unmistakable sound of an aircraft. Vilocek whirled around, quickly spotting the business jet. He saw the Learjet’s sleek frame as it began its descent toward the runway.

  Vilocek turned back toward the airport. “Come on!” He yelled over his shoulder. “We need to get there before they land!” Beka and Karn exchanged an annoyed glance but turned to follow, pushing the captives ahead of them.

  Vilocek headed for the main hangar, and found a spot inside to wait as the jet taxied in.

  The aircraft came to a stop outside the hangar and the three soldiers disembarked. They all had sidearms, but were otherwise unprepared and off guard.

  “Well, gentlemen,” Vilocek said as he stepped from the shadows. “I thought we’d lost you back in the East.”

  Bryce pulled up short and stared coldly at the older man.

  “Don’t you want to continue our partnership?” Vilocek asked innocently. “I thought we were doing rather well together.”

  “Yeah,” Jeff said. “Until you left us to die in that shaft.”

  “And don’t forget about that little incident in the Plaza,” Wayne added.

  “Ha!” Vilocek laughed. “That was just ‘cleaning house,’ a little, as they say. Can’t have too much extra baggage, you know.”

  Corinne looked sick.

  “You’re a bastard,” Bryce said.

  Vilocek ignored the slight. “Why don’t we get started? Madu is already here — hell, he might have already found the entrance to ‘Te Pito,’ so let’s not waste more time crying over what’s already done.” Corinne’s shoulders sagged in defeat. Vilocek motioned to his men standing guard behind, and they lifted their rifles.

  “Fall in. You will be allowed to carry a weapon, but understand that this is still my expedition, and you are under my command. If we’re successful, I may even spare your lives.”

  With that, he turned and strode away, toward the outskirts of
the town to the northwest. Above the horizon, directly in front of them, stood the Terevaka volcano. Somewhere beneath its enormous mass, like a needle in a haystack, lay an ancient crystal of unbelievable power.

  48

  9:48 am - Easter Island

  They had walked for an hour, stopping once to share a few canteens of water and an old granola bar. Bryce’s team wasn’t prepared for a long hike. He hadn’t expected to be accosted by Vilocek and his men immediately after landing.

  The two Vilocorp guards seemed perfectly at home jumping from rock to rock as they explored different Moai statues and volcanic caves that pockmarked the island. The men seemed distracted by the numerous cave paintings, artifacts, and occasional skulls that adorned the caverns. But Vilocek was dead-set on finding something — anything — that would point toward the crystal, or indicate the direction Madu’s small army had gone.

  Every now and then they’d come across a cave opening that was set back from the main line of caverns along the volcano’s hillside. Beka or Karn, taking turns, would run up the side of the hill and peer inside, waving the crystal sliver around and scouting out the interior for special markings, passageways, or anything that seemed out of the ordinary. Each time, they would shake their head and again fall back in line, and the search would continue.

  Finally, they came to the Ahu Akivi, a set of Moai atop an elevated platform that faced the ocean — the only ones of their kind on the island. As they neared the platform, Bryce blinked in disbelief.

  “Did you see that?”

  “What?” Vilocek asked, looking around him.

  “I — I could have sworn they — changed, or something,” Bryce said.

  “I think I saw it too,” Cole said, taking a few steps closer to the Moai. As he approached, a luminous sheen appeared on the surface of the sculptures, beginning with the ones closest to him. He stepped closer to the first in line and slowly reached out to touch it.

  In a flash, the statue lit up with a flaring blue light, forcing all of them to look away from the surprising brightness, even against the morning sun — which was now beginning to bear down on them.

  “Geez — that’s bright,” Jeff said, shading his eyes with a hand to look toward the Moai.

  The rest did the same in time to see Cole’s arm and body turn blue, matching the shade of the now-glowing Moai. Cole gazed down in wonder, no longer surprised at the effect, but still in awe. Then he began to tremble.

  Slowly at first, then more quickly, Cole’s body convulsed in a series of spasms of increasing intensity. Corinne wrapped her arms around him, holding him up as he shook. He withdrew his hand from the statue, and the shaking stopped, but his skin retained its blue shade.

  “That was weird,” he said. He seemed unfazed, to the astonishment of the others. Vilocek muttered something and turned away.

  “What the hell was that?” Bryce asked, directing the question more toward Vilocek than Cole.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Vilocek said. “It’s just a reaction to his — uh, injections.”

  “What injections?” Bryce asked. “You mean like the experiments you did in New Mexico, on that little boy?”

  Vilocek whirled around. “Oh, you saw that, did you?” He seemed suddenly giddy, like a child bragging about a newfound skill. “What did you think? We’ve almost perfected the algorithm to minimize reactions, but the power — the absolute power! You saw that, right?”

  “I saw a young boy brutally murdered,” Bryce said through clenched teeth. “By you.”

  “No advances in science or intellectual thought come without a price, Captain Reynolds,” Vilocek said.

  “Obviously Cole’s reaction has something to do with this crystal, or whatever it is, right? What are you trying to accomplish by injecting it into people like that?” Bryce asked.

  “Don’t you see?” Vilocek said, spreading his arms in frustration. “It’s not just the sheer power of it that intrigues me — haven’t you wondered yet why Mr. Reed can actually make some sense of those symbols we found?”

  “Wait — he can read those?” Wayne interrupted.

  “How did you know about that?” Cole asked.

  All eyes turned to Vilocek. He sighed heavily. “Yes, to an extent, yes. Cole has the crystal’s properties — basically the main elemental ‘ingredients,’ bonded with another isotope — coursing through his veins. It’s not perfect yet, though it’s much more stable than what we tried on Mika, which you saw in the video.

  “This crystal — we don’t know what it is, and we may never know. You see, in classifying elements, minerals, pretty much everything — we use specific and comparison-based taxonomies, using what we already know about common materials to determine what an unknown substance is made of. Unfortunately, we’re not sure where this ‘element’ is from — it’s unlike any other known element on the planet.

  “My scientists and I have been applying all the knowledge we have toward figuring out what the crystal substance is capable of, but it’s been slow going, and only in the past five years have we made any type of real advancement. It turns out that there are two specific elements — for lack of a better word — that make up the substance, working in some sort of mutually beneficial relationship.”

  Bryce cut in. “And these two elements break down, and then bad things happen?”

  “Well, sort of,” Vilocek said. “One of the materials, at a microscopic level, of course, is decaying much faster than its counterpart. We haven’t been able to accurately measure the decay in what we’re calling Material B, but Material A seems to be breaking down at an exponential rate of about 0.00414% each year.”

  “Damn,” Jeff said sarcastically, clearly having no idea what that meant. Bryce shot him a look.

  “Judging by what we have seen in the lab,” Vilocek continued, “we haven’t been able to correctly replicate the relationships between these two elements. First of all, they’re not exactly ‘extractable,’ so we can’t isolate them under a microscope. Second, because of the principles of quantum physics — the idea that the act of measuring something actually alters its state so a measurement cannot be acceptably accurate — we could never grasp at what rate Material B was breaking down.”

  They had started walking again as Vilocek spoke, searching for anything that would be lit in the presence of the strange symbols. They fanned out, Cole and Corinne on the ridge above the platform with Vilocek and Karn, while Beka and Bryce’s team walked down behind the Ahu Akivi Moai figures. They were still well within earshot, and Vilocek continued his monologue.

  “We needed to find out when this substance would reach its tipping point, and complete its breakdown cycle. We searched high and low for an explanation — anything under the sun that might be even remotely plausible.

  “It turns out, Ms. Banks, that your uncle helped us find the answer.”

  Corinne glared at Vilocek, but didn’t speak. Cole felt her thin, ice-cold fingers wrap around his hand and squeeze. He spoke for her.

  “How? You mean with the pyramid stuff?” Corinne had told Cole how they’d been abducted; how her uncle had been shot and brought to the laboratory in New Mexico, and about their first conversation with Vilocek and the guards. Cole had also had flashbacks and brief recollections of Vilocek and some of the scientists mentioning ‘pyramids,’ ‘ratios,’ and other strange things that hadn’t made sense to him at the time.

  “Actually, it was the paper he published awhile back. It not only led us to what our Founding Fathers were trying to hide within the layout of Washington, D.C., but also what was being hidden in our little crystal substance here,” he said.

  Bryce connected the dots. “The Golden Ratio — the same thing that you guys used to figure out that we needed to go to Giza, and something about the passageways beneath the pyramid and at Petra,” he said.

  “Exactly,” Vilocek said. “When Andrews’ paper came across my desk, we applied the idea of the ratio toward the crystal, and it worked — almost too well. You s
ee, our synthetic recreations of the crystal — combining the two materials, A and B, as best we could with each other in different ratios, they would inevitably begin to break down, or decay, eventually to a 1:1 ratio — one part Material A, and one part Material B; perfectly balanced.

  “No matter what we tried, it always seemed to cause disastrous side effects,” he said, looking knowingly at Bryce. “We tried to use an isotope of another element as a stabilizer, and it usually worked, to an extent, though with some unforeseen side effects. In some tests, it was like creating a magnet — the reaction was a physical one. In others — “ he went on, looking at Cole, “it was a chemical change, sometimes accompanied by a heightened state of consciousness and awareness, though only for a fleeting time,” he said.

  “Until the materials ‘balanced out’ again?” Wayne asked.

  “Right — we needed to find out what ratio to start them at. We naturally tried 2:1, 3:1, etc., never with any luck. It was a futile effort — just plugging numbers into a system, hoping it would stabilize.” He looked down. “But it didn’t. It never worked right. Until your uncle’s paper gave us an idea.

  “What if whatever, or whoever, had created the crystal substance originally had used the Golden Ratio — it had to come from somewhere, right? What if —“

  “Hey, check this out!” Cole shouted from a few yards away. He was standing before a small hole in the side of the hill, no more than three feet tall by four wide. From a distance, it looked like nothing more than a small boulder; another drab feature of the landscape.

  But there, right above the hole, was a small piece of smoothed stone. The dirt and grass had been cleared away from the stone’s surface, but it seemed otherwise nondescript. On it, however, shone a bright blue symbol: